Z-fold festive Christmas card using My Favorite Things

Hi everyone! Esther here. It's back to my day for showing you a card, and this week I've gone for something a bit more fancy that you might want to make for a special friend or family member.

It's been a while since I've done a Z-fold card, but ages ago I saw one in a shop and fell in love with it. I can't even remember where it was now, but I knew I wanted to try to make a handmade version, so here it is.

This is what it looks like from the front, and here's a look from higher up to show the layers better.

Although this is takes a little time to make, I think the effect is worth it. 

Let's talk about the front side of the card first, which has two "live" panels as shown below.

For the front panel, I used the largest die from the Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle Frames and partial die cutting to remove a large portion of that area. You could certainly use a rectangle die if you don't like partial die cutting - how about Lawn Fawn Large Stitched Rectangles, or My Favorite Things Inside & Out Stitched Rectangle STAX Dienamics. 

I used My Favorite Things Take The Stage Dienamic for the curtain, two pelment loops and tie back, and coloured the fabric with Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens. The presents are from two sets, My Favorite Things Beary Special Birthday and matching Dienamics, and My Favorite Things Merry Everything and matching Dienamics. 

The back panel was inked (use any dye ink of your preference) to create a night sky. The snow was stamped and heat embossed with the My Favorite Things Snowfall Background Stamp, and you could also use the My Favorite Things Snowfall Stencil, or new My Favorite Things Simply Snowflakes for larger flakes.

The reindeer are from My Favorite Things Merry Everything and cut with the matching Dienamics.

Okay, on to the middle panel which is created on the back of the card:

I used the window panes from the My Favorite Things Classic Window Dienamic four times in a grid to create a large paned glass window. The entire panel was coloured with the Beige Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pen to look like light brown wood.

A large vellum panel was glued onto the back of the panel, making sure to get glue on all the joining bits of card as well as round the edge. You need to be thorough with this, because the next step is to cut most of the vellum away from each pane using a craft knife to leave "snow" caught on the window panes, and you want those bits to be securely stuck down!

The cute Christmas bunny looking up at the reindeer and his teddy companion are from My Favorite Things Snuggle Bunnies and matching Dienamics (what, you thought those bunnies were just for birthdays?) and stuck down after colouring.

My final step was to cut a plain white curtain, pelments, presents, bunny and teddy, and stick those to the back of the ones that showed on the "wrong" sides for neatness. Obviously some of them have to stick backwards to be a mirror image, but just run them through your embossing folder with a thick sandwich and it'll flatten the raised cutting edge left behind from when you die cut them.

So there you go, a bit of work involved but hopefully someone special will love to receive this! Are you planning any fancier cards this year? I'd love to know what you've got in mind :)

Thanks so much for stopping by!